One of many decisions that students transitioning from high school to postsecondary education are faced with is what program of study and credential to pursue. This can be challenging, since students are often not aware of the opportunities and salary potential associated with different careers. The NC Tower database can provide some insight into this important question. NC Tower is a web-based data delivery system, maintained by the NC Department of Commerce, which provides aggregate…

Forty-three percent of North Carolina’s adults aged 25-64 held some type of postsecondary degree in 2017—just over 2.3 million residents in the state. This share has risen five percentage points since 2010, and ten since 2000. In total, North Carolina gained 932K working-age adults with an Associate degree or higher from 2000 to 2017, and among these adults, the level of degree attainment continues to rise. In 2000, the majority of NC adults aged 25-64…

When we focus on educational attainment, we generally focus on prime working-age adults, defined here as adults between the ages of 25 and 64. There were 5.4 million prime working-age adults in North Carolina in 2017. Of these individuals, 2.3 million or 43.2% held a postsecondary degree: 545,000 or 10% had an associate degree 2 million or 22% had a bachelor’s degree 446,400 or 8% had a master’s degree 92,900 or 2% had a professional…

What is “postsecondary attainment”? This post was co-authored with the John M. Belk Endowment. School administrators, policy analysts, and government officials have begun using the term “postsecondary attainment” when discussing successful educational outcomes. What does this mean? Postsecondary refers to education or training beyond high school. Attainment means the completion of a postsecondary degree or nondegree credential. Postsecondary attainment is not a one-size-fits-all concept. It includes postsecondary degrees, such as associate or bachelor’s degrees, awarded…